AUDIO: Catholics react to gay marriage

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Aug 1, 2013 at 6:12 am

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (KNSI) Gay marriage is now legal in Minnesota, but it won't be happening in churches in the Catholic Diocese of St. Cloud.

Father Bob Rolfes--the Vicar General of the Diocese--says, "the position the church has taken is really given to us by the code of Canon Law, which clearly defines the marriage covenant as existing between a man and a woman."

Father Rolfes says this is a blanket policy throughout the diocese, and decisions on performing same sex marriages will not be made on a church by church or priest by priest basis. He says priests will not be "witnessing same sex marriages, nor will our facilities be made available for that."

Father Tom Knoblach of the Church of St. Anthony in St. Cloud calls the legalization of same sex marriage, "a change in our social structure." But he says the Catholic Church has a long experience of, "dealing with individuals who we believe enter into marriages that may be civilly, contractually valid, but are not valid in the eyes of the church."

He says the church has no "personal difficulty or animosity with them as individuals, but we cannot recognize in our sacramental order the validity of those marriages."